Class 701 'Aventra' trains for South Western Railway

[ijmad]

You sure about that? I would have said they're quite similar. The 710s certainly have noisy traction motor blowers when the 378s do not, but otherwise they're not too bad.

Maybe it's more the quality of the noise. They have that woo-woo flying saucer sound like the Desiros do, whereas the 378s seem to sound more like a constant whine

 

[hwl]

All of the Aventras seem to have quite noisy traction motors, the 710s are ear-splitting compared to the 378s. So I'm not surprised the 701s are similarly loud. They are quite quiet inside though.

The traction motors are actually very quiet, what you hear is the separate traction motor blower system (cooling air supply is not related to motor speed but motor cooling requirement which allow better lower speed regenerative braking). Same noise situation as on class 91.

 

[samuelmorris]

I think he's actually referring to neither, rather the IGBT traction driver noise. I'd argue it's far less pervasive than the Desiro UK noise, but the increased pitch from the 345 definitely makes it more noticeable. I find myself wondering why they changed it - all the other Aventra types (701, 720, and I assume 730) use the higher pitch. It's as if the 345 was the original (which I imagine it was) and it was then updated. Perhaps an interference issue that required a workaround on the 345s? I haven't heard of any such issues.

 

[43096]

Maybe it's more the quality of the noise. They have that woo-woo flying saucer sound like the Desiros do, whereas the 378s seem to sound more like a constant whine

I’m amazed at all these people who have direct first hand experience of flying saucers to compare to a Desiro.

 

[fgwrich]

A bit of an interesting unit failure yesterday, when a 701 (701007 I believe) arrived into Basingstoke with the cab door hanging off. I'm not sure how it was fixed as I briefly saw it passing through, but only the top runner appeared to be holding it on.

 

[Bigfoot]

A bit of an interesting unit failure yesterday, when a 701 (701007 I believe) arrived into Basingstoke with the cab door hanging off. I'm not sure how it was fixed as I briefly saw it passing through, but only the top runner appeared to be holding it on.

Sounds like some excellent British build quality.

 

[dmncf]

A bit of an interesting unit failure yesterday, when a 701 (701007 I believe) arrived into Basingstoke with the cab door hanging off. I'm not sure how it was fixed as I briefly saw it passing through, but only the top runner appeared to be holding it on.

Interesting! I think the TfL Rail 345, London Overground 710 and Greater Anglia 720 Aventras have manual hinged cab doors. I think the SWR 701 and WMT 730 Aventras are the first to have sliding cab doors.

 

[3141]

I’m amazed at all these people who have direct first hand experience of flying saucers to compare to a Desiro.

It is possible to have indirect secondhand experience of the sound of carnivorous seaweed to compare to a Desiro. In the 1968 film The Lost Continent (based on Uncharted Seas by Dennis Wheatley), the killer seaweed in the Sargasso Sea makes a a sound just like a Desiro pulling away from a stop when it's hoping to swallow one of the characters.

 

[ijmad]

the killer seaweed in the Sargasso Sea makes a a sound just like a Desiro pulling away from a stop when it's hoping to swallow one of the characters

You're not wrong...

 

[Goldfish62]

You're not wrong...

 

[5920]

Staff were indeed welcomed to submit suggestions, but there was no voting and I seem to recall it was said at the time that the company may still choose their own name.

The winner was a member of staff from head office

 

[Goldfish62]

I see in the latest RAIL that Bombardier (Christian Roth - remember him?) were hoping to make a submission to ORR in the middle of this month to authorise use and thus allow crew training to commence.

Wonder how that's going?

 

[spark001uk]

Today's 6X24 delivery currently running 101 late approaching mkt Harborough.
Showing as 701012, between 66721 and 737.

Edit:
More delay as it came to a stand just south of Bedford, blocking the up slow for 25mins.
Now 141L

 

[Bald Rick]

Quite amused that the loco on the rear is named after the GBRFs MDs Mrs. I don’t know about that!

 

[pompeyfan]

Looking at that picture it appears the unit cab door is open. The formation is currently being delayed at Woking having shunted from platform 5 to platform 1 at Woking. I wonder if the two are related.

 

[spark001uk]

I noted the open cab door on a previous delivery too (005?), at the time I thought someone was/had been in there and it was too hot inside. But today isn't even hot really, so not sure? Must be a reason for it.
Edit:
On the move again, it's crossed onto the down fast. Now around 3.5 hrs late.
I'm guessing by the shunt all the way from 5 over to 1 at Woking that they were considering throwing it in the up yard, so something must have been amiss. Wonder if it was related to it coming to a halt earlier at Bedford South jn for almost half hr as well?

 

[Bald Rick]

The cab door was indeed open, and I can confirm that in Hertfordshire in direct sun it was plenty hot!

 

[Bigfoot]

Is there a 5 car hiding at Wimbledon Park? There's definitely two units there today.

 

[spark001uk]

I don't think there's any 5 car units delivered yet.
If there were definitely two units, one must have come up from Eastleigh during tests I imagine.

 

[brownandrew15]

This was tweeted on Thursday:

https://twitter.com/eastwimbledon/status/1306684759331033088?s=21

Can’t work out when it was moved from Eastleigh though...

 

[spark001uk]

Can’t work out when it was moved from Eastleigh though...

Probably this working on Monday. Made it up as far as Wimbledon then vanished. Return working canned.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I passed Wimbledon today and thought I saw the front end of a 701 inside - this would be on the road nearest to the running lines inside the shed; I didn't actually note which shed - I think it may have been the West Shed.

 

[WWTownEnth]

Option enables SWR to expand Class 701 fleet

UK: A contract amendment has been agreed which gives South Western Railway an option to acquire up to five more Class 701 Aventra electric multiple-units from Bombardier Transportation through leasing company Rock Rail. The original £895m agreement between First MTR South Western Trains Ltd and...

www.railwaygazette.com

This may have been discussed already but the option to acquire 2 more ten car units has been increased to 5 units. The article suggests that the option would have to be exercised by the end of this month.

Has anyone heard anything?

 

[swt_passenger]

Option enables SWR to expand Class 701 fleet

UK: A contract amendment has been agreed which gives South Western Railway an option to acquire up to five more Class 701 Aventra electric multiple-units from Bombardier Transportation through leasing company Rock Rail. The original £895m agreement between First MTR South Western Trains Ltd and...

www.railwaygazette.com

This may have been discussed already but the option to acquire 2 more ten car units has been increased to 5 units. The article suggests that the option would have to be exercised by the end of this month.

Has anyone heard anything?

It was also posted in July, but I for one haven’t heard anything more.

 

[Goldfish62]

It was also posted in July, but I for one haven’t heard anything more.

I for one would be extremely surprised if the option was exercised.

 

[spark001uk]

I passed Wimbledon today and thought I saw the front end of a 701 inside - this would be on the road nearest to the running lines inside the shed; I didn't actually note which shed - I think it may have been the West Shed.

Just passed on the flyover and yes it is the west shed. It's further in now, road 6 I think.

24/09/20:
5Q51 1122 Wimbledon Park Depot sdgs to Staines up loop (via Brockenhurst) then 5Q52 back to Eastleigh is booked in today, though it still hasn't left yet. Wonder if that's 006 attempting to head back down.
EDIT: Cancelled

 

[Euan Chong]

Has the 701 been given approval from ORR yet? I remember seeing in Modern Railways that they would complete this by mid-September

 

[Goldfish62]

Has the 701 been given approval from ORR yet? I remember seeing in Modern Railways that they would complete this by mid-September

From memory the report said that it would be submitted to ORR by then. Presumably ORR need some time to digest and recommend.

 

[spark001uk]

006 is away from Wimbledon Park now. Currently carrying out a Southampton - Staines run (5Q51), then back to Eastleigh (5Q52).

 

[Driver2B]

Does anybody know which 701 has been sitting in Wimbledon Park Cleaning Shed 5 Road for the past week or two (or three?)?

Does anybody know which 701 operated 5Q51 (Wimbledon-Staines) today?

Realtime Trains - 5Q51 1222 Wimbledon Park Depot Sdgs to Staines Up Loop

Realtime Trains provides live realtime running information for the Great British railway network using open data.

www.realtimetrains.co.uk

Many thanks in advance for responses.